Black Autonomism developed in American prisons within the conversations, letters and zines shared between imprisoned militants of the 70s Black power movement and their comrades on the outside. Dissatisfied with the lack of support they were offered by their waning organisations under the thumb of a brutal counter insurgency. Influenced by prisoner support organisations such as the Anarchist Black Cross and the tradition of stateless resistance in the colonial era such as the maroon societies in the americans and the Caribbean.

This reader is just one attempt to stitch together the ideas, individuals & organisations that both influenced and sprung fourth from these realisations and realities. This was put together explicitly using texts that are already available in print and online just to illustrate how much knowledge has already been made available once you scratch the surface.
Ranging from Black anarchic radicals within the British squatter movement, witnesses to the anti-police rebellion in Ferguson to critical analysis of the failures of State Socialism in continental Africa written by black anarchists who’ve experienced it first hand.

The reader also features an appendix of Black led anti state organisations and the biographies of several black anarchists. At the same time, not everyone in this reader is an anarchist but the relevance of these experiences have much to offer anarchists and anti-authoritarians of all stripes. The book is the first of its kind to be published in the UK.

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